NHS GP turns 20 years of frontline experience into gripping debut medical thriller

What happens when the systems designed to protect vulnerable people begin to serve those with power instead?

That unsettling question lies at the heart of What Can’t Be Unseen, the debut medical thriller from British NHS GP Michael Crisp, who has drawn on more than two decades of frontline medical experience to give his fiction an unusually authentic edge.

While the conspiracy at the centre of the novel is entirely fictional, Crisp says the pressures, ethical dilemmas and human stories surrounding it have been shaped by his years working as a doctor.

“Medicine is built on trust,” Crisp told That's Books and More. “But trust can sadly be exploited. The aim of my debut novel was to explore what happens when the systems designed to protect the vulnerable begin to serve power instead.”

The story introduces Dr James Harland, an NHS physician left deeply shaken after being unable to save a young migrant woman in a London emergency department.

However, her death soon becomes considerably more troubling. Toxicology reports reveal an unknown pharmaceutical compound in her blood, drawing Harland into an increasingly dangerous investigation involving illegal drug testing, organised crime and political corruption.

Alongside journalist Emily Morris and his estranged daughter Lucy, Harland faces a choice familiar to many a good thriller protagonist: protect his career and walk away, or risk everything by pursuing a truth that powerful people would rather keep hidden.

Yet What Can’t Be Unseen isn't simply a conspiracy thriller. Crisp uses the story to explore some of the less visible realities of working in medicine, including exhaustion, difficult decisions, professional responsibility and the emotional burden that can follow doctors home after their shifts have ended.

“I have seen how overstretched systems create cracks and how vulnerable people can fall through them,” he explains. “I wanted to explore what could happen if those cracks were deliberately exploited – and who ultimately pays the price.”

There are also themes of family, regret and redemption, with the novel asking how ordinary people might respond when extraordinary circumstances make doing the right thing personally costly.

With shades of medical thrillers in the Michael Crichton tradition combined with the darker territory of contemporary British crime fiction, What Can’t Be Unseen promises readers both a fast-moving mystery and some uncomfortable questions about trust, power and professional ethics.

Crisp continues to practise as a doctor while writing and is already working on his second novel, The Shadow Helix.

What Can’t Be Unseen is published by Foreshore Publishing, priced at £12.99 and available from Amazon at our own bookshop: https://link.amazon/B06iJE6mF

Why Is Murakami's Norwegian Wood So Good? A Review by Nick Dixon

Nick Dixon has asked his friends to share his review of a new novel called Norwegian Wood.

He writes: I have just released a new video on Haruki Murakami, particularly his extraordinarily successful novel, Norwegian Wood.

I try to work out why this strange, rather dark book resonated with so many people, compare it to his magic realist novels, and consider some of the odder aspects of Murakami’s writing life."

The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists Comes to Horden’s New Playhouse

A powerful story about work, poverty and the struggle to stand together is coming to the stage in Horden this autumn.

Ensemble ’84 will present its own adaptation of Robert Tressell’s classic novel The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists at The Playhouse from 30 September. 

It will be the third major production staged at the new venue this year, following The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet and the return of the musical documentary Pits, People and Players.

Set during the early years of the twentieth century, Tressell’s story follows a group of painters and decorators who spend their working lives creating beautiful homes for wealthy clients. Meanwhile, they struggle to keep their own families warm and properly fed.

The work is exhausting, wages are low and the threat of unemployment is never far away.

Among the workers is Frank Owen, who begins questioning why those responsible for creating wealth are so often the people left living in poverty. As he encourages his colleagues to look at society differently, he discovers that fear, insecurity and the daily need to earn a wage can make collective action extremely difficult.

Funny, moving and unapologetically political, The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists explores friendship, working life and the challenge of creating a fairer society.

The production is directed by internationally acclaimed theatre-maker and Ensemble ’84 Artistic Director Mark Dornford-May. The company’s adaptation will introduce Tressell’s ideas to a modern audience through a distinctive mixture of storytelling, movement and music.

“The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists was written more than 100 years ago, but it still speaks directly to the world we live in today,” Mark told That's Books and More.

“It asks who creates wealth, who benefits from it and why so many people who work the hardest continue to struggle. These are conversations that belong everywhere, but especially in communities with proud industrial histories like East Durham.”

The production continues an ambitious opening year for The Playhouse. Since Sir Ian McKellen helped launch the Horden venue, Ensemble ’84 has welcomed thousands of audience members through its doors.

Its production of The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet attracted a string of four and five-star reviews, while also introducing many audience members to Shakespeare for the first time.

Ensemble ’84 is also an original partner in Into the Light, a county-wide cultural programme intended to support long-term growth across County Durham.

Into the Light Director Julia Handelman-Smith said East Durham had always been shaped by “hard work, solidarity and creativity”, describing Ensemble ’84 as a brilliant example of culture-led regeneration in action.

With its enduring questions about inequality, employment and solidarity, The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists feels particularly at home in a community with such a proud industrial heritage.

The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists will be performed at The Playhouse, Horden, from 30 September. Tickets are available through the Ensemble ’84 website.

That's Christmas 365: Step Inside The Mythical Land Zoo A Magical New Bo...

That's Christmas 365: Step Inside The Mythical Land Zoo A Magical New Bo...: If you are already searching for an imaginative Christmas present for a young reader, a wonderfully unusual new zoo is preparing to open its...

Land of the Buffalo: A Powerful Portrait of Survival, Beauty and Betrayal

Just 150 years ago, the wild American buffalo came perilously close to disappearing from the face of the Earth.

An estimated 60 million of these extraordinary animals were killed as the United States expanded westwards. 

Their destruction was presented by some as the inevitable price of progress and “national destiny”. 

Yet this was not progress. It was an environmental catastrophe and an assault upon an animal that had sustained Indigenous peoples for countless generations.

In Land of the Buffalo, acclaimed wildlife photographer and writer Larry Laverty combines passionate writing with more than 150 remarkable photographs to document the lives of the buffalo of Yellowstone National Park.

The American buffalo, more accurately known as the American bison, has become a symbol of strength, resilience and survival. 

These are animals capable of enduring bitter winters, deep snow, scarce food and sub-zero temperatures. Their physical power is undeniable, but so too is their vulnerability to human decisions.

“Like the bald eagle, the American buffalo is a powerful symbol of the United States,” Laverty told That's Books and More.

“Yet while the buffalo may represent national qualities of strength and resilience, it’s incumbent to remember that the American buffalo, like the American Indian, were here first. This was their land, their home, and we destroyed it.”

Laverty’s photographs reveal Yellowstone through every season. Winter brings desperation as food becomes scarce and temperatures plummet. Spring transforms the seemingly lifeless landscape as plants return and new calves are born. 

During summer, the herds enter the dramatic mating season known as the rut. By autumn, the survivors of the previous winter are already preparing for the ordeal to come.

However, Land of the Buffalo is far more than a celebration of natural beauty. It also examines the deeply controversial management of Yellowstone’s wild bison.

The park is required to maintain a population of between 3,500 and 6,000 animals. Numbers are controlled through tribal and state hunting when bison leave the park, capture and slaughter, and the Bison Conservation Transfer Programme, which seeks to move suitable animals to new locations rather than kill them.

The Stephens Creek Bison Capture Facility has consequently become a focus of criticism. Environmental campaigners, including the Buffalo Field Campaign, argue that wild herds should be allowed greater freedom and have raised concerns about transparency and the continued slaughter of these iconic animals.

After humanity came so close to eradicating the species, we have a profound responsibility to ensure that survival does not simply mean being tolerated within tightly controlled boundaries.

Land of the Buffalo asks readers to look beyond the familiar national symbol and recognise a living, breathing community of animals. 

Magnificent, resilient and still threatened by human choices, Yellowstone’s buffalo deserve more than our admiration. They deserve space, protection and a future worthy of their extraordinary history.

That's Books and More believes this will be an excellent Christmas gift for Christmas 2026.

https://lidpublishing.com